Punish those who violate human rights, not the ones who protect them!

In solidarity
with victims of criminalization of civic solidarity, we are carrying forward the notice of the Platform 112 as a reaction to the recent actions of the
Ministry of the interior affairs and the Government of the Republic of Croatia.

"Motivated by last
week's not legally binding verdict to Dragan Umičević, the volunteer of Are You
Syrious ?, the Platform 112 expresses concern over the pressures that the
Ministry of the interior affairs has continuously conducted on activists, volunteers
and all those who jointly assist and support refugees. Particularly worrying is
that the Ministry of the interior affairs, in a lawsuit filed a private person, wanted a
ban of the work of the organization for which the person has volunteered.

Several months
ago, citizens of this country could testify to calls for informal talks to
activists during the media conference on the issue of police violence against
refugees, today we have a non-verbal verdict, non-transparent communication of
information, as well as disabling of work of an independent national human
rights institution, the Ombudsman, when accessing the data necessary for
carrying out examinations.

By restricting
the space for the functioning of civil society and, in general, all those who
publicly criticize the policies and practices of the ruling, democracy and
fundamental rights are undermined. Also, the rule of law is being implemented,
and instead of conducting investigations and seriously taking into consideration the warnings of
the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, UNHCR and other relevant
institutions and organizations, the MIA continues to insist on violating
national and international legislation. These warnings are a sign that activists,
volunteers and all others who help refugees not only show elemental humanity,
solidarity and support for those in disadvantage but do so in accordance with
the rules laid down by law.

Unfortunately,
Croatia is not lonely in such practices among the countries of the European
Union, since we can see threats, court proceedings and the punishment of those
who help refugees in other member states, such as Hungary, Greece, Italy,
France, etc. Hungary has for years been an example of a country that is, along violation
of refugee rights, trying to punish and disable work of those who help
refugees, which led to the European Parliament voting last month to activate an
extraordinary procedure that protects democracy and civil liberties. Governing
Italy also decided to punish solidarity, and they went so far as to detain the
mayor of Riace, a city that has been recording years of success and the quality
of foreigners integration and chased off people who were there. Solidarity,
proclaimed as one of the fundamental European values ​​is increasingly losing
its meaning, and Croatia joins the countries that punish solidarity and narrow
the space of freedom to NGOs that protect human rights.

Platform 112
condemns the behavior of the Ministry of the interior affairs and the Government of the
Republic of Croatia that try to intimidate and criminalize, first people on
the move, and then all those who support them. The question arises, who will
stop other violations of human rights, if it is already apparent that the MIA does not answer questions of independent institutions that seek answers.

Also, the
Platform 112 invites Prime Minister Plenković and Minister Božinović to
urgently stop these intensive MIA attacks on human rights organizations, that they allow
investigations by independent institutions, and punish those who violate human
rights, and not those who protect those rights."